THE ORDER OF THE BATH 313 



hooligan instincts, is a thorough petty pirate ; 

 Americans complain that he robs the fine Thrush 

 they call a Robin (Turdus migratorius) of its earth- 

 worms, and I saw only last year the same trick 

 played on a Starling on a little London grass-plot. 

 The curious part of the business is that one never 

 sees a Sparrow trying to catch worms itself, and 

 also in the case I saw, the want of resentment in 

 the StarUng, usually a plucky bird ; but it is notice- 

 able that with birds, as with ourselves, there is a 

 general tendency to be deplorably patient under 

 imposition. 



Although other animals besides birds assiduously 

 clean themselves, as one may see with flies and 

 cats, birds have some toilet customs peculiarly their 

 own. Of these washing in water is undoubtedly 

 the chief, for though beasts and reptiles may 

 wallow, they do not wash deliberately as birds do. 

 Bathing, however, is not universal among birds ; 

 some preferring to roll in dust and throw it over 

 themselves, like the common Fowl, whose dry- 

 cleaning habit is shared by all the Game-birds, as 

 also by the Cariama and the Bustards and Sand- 

 Grouse. Among the great runners, also, though 

 the Emu and Ostrich wash, the Rhea dusts, picking 

 up and throwing the dust over itself with its bill. 

 I have also seen a Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus 

 erythrorhynchus) in the Zoo dusting, but I do not 

 know if it bathes as well, as some other Hornbills 

 do. 



Bathing and dusting are seldom practised by 



